The high school years can be some of the most important in a person's life. Some consider it traumatic, but to me, high school was where I found my niche. I developed an amazing group of friends, participated in after-school activities, and excelled in honors level classes. At Cranston High School West in Cranston, Rhode Island there were countless experiences that changed me as a person, some of which were ordinary for teenagers and other that were out of the norm. Though there were numerous teachers and strictly educational instances that impacted my high school career, it would be doing a disservice to this time in my life to neglect reflecting upon the more unconventional experiences that also had an influence. Regardless of their nature, my education and personality would not have been the same if it were not for my various adventures at Cranston West.
Upon entering West, I was expecting a slightly easy transition into high school course work. My teachers in middle school had always expressed that all of their decisions were intended to prepare us for high school. Consequently, I felt rather confident in my abilities, that was at least, until I met my teachers. I was under the direction of two of the department chairs in the school, one who gave a quiz every day and another who taught college level writing, and an informal, eco-obsessed physics teacher who believed in learning by self-discovery and by making mistake after mistake. The worst by far though, was the dreaded freshman world history teacher. She gave a major test every week and ran a class based solely on lecture. The new, unacclimated freshmen also had to complete one large project per week while managing other, equally important courses. She was the first teacher that caused me, in my first year of high school, to stay up nearly all night doing school work when I had worked nonstop since the afternoon. Though at many times I wished to charge her for emotional abuse of minors, she and my other very difficult teachers truly did prepare me for all that was to come. Until I entered college, my freshman year of high school remained the most difficult because of these teachers, but now I can do nothing but thank them for their lessons in determination, time management and working efficiently. Sophomore year did prove easier than freshman year, but I did add more to my high school repertoire. I became a part of the Falconette Precision Dance Team, a team well-known in the state for our kick-line routines performed with the marching band and flag corps. We not only performed at the half time show during the football games, but we also traveled to Orlando to march in parades at theme parks. In addition, being on the squad meant being part of a family. Twenty-three girls spent eleven hours per week together for six months of the year and many consequently became and remain my best friends. We looked forward to practice when we could spill our hearts out too each other, reminisce about past years, and have shaving cream fights with the band. Together on that field we were entertainers and it was a place where we all felt the most alive. I now more accurately understand why the alumni members always said that the close friendships you make within the squad last a lifetime. Being a part of this team from my sophomore to senior year changed my high school experience completely and is what I consider to be one of the most memorable aspects of my life thus far.
However, not all high school experiences were as positive an influence as Falconettes was. There were always negative people, unable to be happy for others. At the homecoming dance of junior year, they made their presence known and ensured their opinions were heard loud and clear. My boyfriend at the time and I were nominated as one of three couples to be crowned homecoming prince and princess. From the start, we understood that we were the underdogs, representing the masses, not the small percentage of popular kids that won year after year, and thoroughly expected not to win. However, the problem arose when I did win the title and my boyfriend did not. Instead, I received the honor, a silk sash with silver letting, with the school's arrogant star football player who did not want to be crowned with anybody but his girlfriend. The crowd of his friends, agreeing, chanted that they wanted her instead of me, in front of all the student body in attendance. Although it was somewhat mentally scarring to be publicly embarassed in front of the peers you attend school with every day, because of it, I learned that the clichés and stereotypes of high school can be broken and that popularity is relative. I was popular among the unpopular and I was proud. The most important thing was my happiness and nobody else's. I was even able to get a great college essay topic out of the situation.
As I discovered the hard way, no high school experience is drama free, and as junior and senior year progressed, the drama in my school happened on a much larger scale. This was the kind of drama that captured national attention, resulting in lawyers, national organizations, and the media, including the Washington Post and the Boston Globe and multiple television stations, all talking about Cranston High School West. It was a controversy Wikipedia is now calling "Ahlquist v. Cranston" centered around a prayer banner that had been donated to the school and painted on the wall of our auditorium in 1963. Jessica Ahlquist and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the school for violating the freedom of religion amendment of the Constitution, since the prayer, using the terms God and Amen, made her, being an Atheist, feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, and oppressed. Whether or not I agree with her motion is irrelevant, but the situation did teach the entire school a few lessons. We had to embrace that every person has their opinions which they are entitled to express and act upon. However, although she claimed the student body and administration were imposing views upon her, we also experienced first hand what it was like to have another's views imposed upon us. She showed bravery when the majority of the city and school, even fellow Atheists, were against her view and all of the negative attention it brought to the school. Positively speaking, everybody received a lesson in the constitutional amendments, had educated civil debates regarding the case, and became more interested in our community affairs and issues of the school system.
One of the other school system agendas the students in my school were directly affected by was the implementation of the RIEPS portfolio system of assessment. Though from freshman year we were told to upload our assignments and the corresponding reflections, it was unclear from the start how many were required. Since the seniors before us had only needed three assignments for the final presentation, most in my grade only did the bare minimum, a tendency of high schoolers. When the end of the year neared, we were finally told our assignment requirement for graduation, twenty. T5he senior class erupted in a frenzy of stress and anger. Many were unprepared for the five artifact/two essay presentation. Fortunately, I had completed over one hundred portfolio assignments since my freshman year and was thoroughly prepared to present them to my panel of judges. While the rest were worrying about the status of their graduation, the greatest of my worries about portfolio was what shoes I would wear to the final presentation. This taught me that going above and beyond and being prepared is worth every extra second of effort in the long run.
Looking back upon the culmination of my high school experiences, they prove to be diverse, varying from an after school activity to a city-wide scandal. Though I had exceptional teachers, including ones I would foster long-lasting relationships with during my entirety at Cranston West, and classmates in the honors courses, who valued intelligence and fostered a sense of community, my education and memorable learning experiences came more from outside the classroom. My life as a student of Cranston High School West was completely unique, unable to be experienced by any student across the country except for myself. Though shaped by events that were stressful, self-affirming, dramatic, and euphoric, I would never think of trading my high school education for another, since, because of my time at Cranston West, I became the determined, welcoming, over-achieving, fun-loving student and woman that I am today.
Upon entering West, I was expecting a slightly easy transition into high school course work. My teachers in middle school had always expressed that all of their decisions were intended to prepare us for high school. Consequently, I felt rather confident in my abilities, that was at least, until I met my teachers. I was under the direction of two of the department chairs in the school, one who gave a quiz every day and another who taught college level writing, and an informal, eco-obsessed physics teacher who believed in learning by self-discovery and by making mistake after mistake. The worst by far though, was the dreaded freshman world history teacher. She gave a major test every week and ran a class based solely on lecture. The new, unacclimated freshmen also had to complete one large project per week while managing other, equally important courses. She was the first teacher that caused me, in my first year of high school, to stay up nearly all night doing school work when I had worked nonstop since the afternoon. Though at many times I wished to charge her for emotional abuse of minors, she and my other very difficult teachers truly did prepare me for all that was to come. Until I entered college, my freshman year of high school remained the most difficult because of these teachers, but now I can do nothing but thank them for their lessons in determination, time management and working efficiently.
Sophomore year did prove easier than freshman year, but I did add more to my high school repertoire. I became a part of the Falconette Precision Dance Team, a team well-known in the state for our kick-line routines performed with the marching band and flag corps. We not only performed at the half time show during the football games, but we also traveled to Orlando to march in parades at theme parks. In addition, being on the squad meant being part of a family. Twenty-three girls spent eleven hours per week together for six months of the year and many consequently became and remain my best friends. We looked forward to practice when we could spill our hearts out too each other, reminisce about past years, and have shaving cream fights with the band. Together on that field we were entertainers and it was a place where we all felt the most alive. I now more accurately understand why the alumni members always said that the close friendships you make within the squad last a lifetime. Being a part of this team from my sophomore to senior year changed my high school experience completely and is what I consider to be one of the most memorable aspects of my life thus far.
However, not all high school experiences were as positive an influence as Falconettes was. There were always negative people, unable to be happy for others. At the homecoming dance of junior year, they made their presence known and ensured their opinions were heard loud and clear. My boyfriend at the time and I were nominated as one of three couples to be crowned homecoming prince and princess. From the start, we understood that we were the underdogs, representing the masses, not the small percentage of popular kids that won year after year, and thoroughly expected not to win. However, the problem arose when I did win the title and my boyfriend did not. Instead, I received the honor, a silk sash with silver letting, with the school's arrogant star football player who did not want to be crowned with anybody but his girlfriend. The crowd of his friends, agreeing, chanted that they wanted her instead of me, in front of all the student body in attendance. Although it was somewhat mentally scarring to be publicly embarassed in front of the peers you attend school with every day, because of it, I learned that the clichés and stereotypes of high school can be broken and that popularity is relative. I was popular among the unpopular and I was proud. The most important thing was my happiness and nobody else's. I was even able to get a great college essay topic out of the situation.
As I discovered the hard way, no high school experience is drama free, and as junior and senior year progressed, the drama in my school happened on a much larger scale. This was the kind of drama that captured national attention, resulting in lawyers, national organizations, and the media, including the Washington Post and the Boston Globe and multiple television stations, all talking about Cranston High School West. It was a controversy Wikipedia is now calling "Ahlquist v. Cranston" centered around a prayer banner that had been donated to the school and painted on the wall of our auditorium in 1963. Jessica Ahlquist and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the school for violating the freedom of religion amendment of the Constitution, since the prayer, using the terms God and Amen, made her, being an Atheist, feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, and oppressed. Whether or not I agree with her motion is irrelevant, but the situation did teach the entire school a few lessons. We had to embrace that every person has their opinions which they are entitled to express and act upon. However, although she claimed the student body and administration were imposing views upon her, we also experienced first hand what it was like to have another's views imposed upon us. She showed bravery when the majority of the city and school, even fellow Atheists, were against her view and all of the negative attention it brought to the school. Positively speaking, everybody received a lesson in the constitutional amendments, had educated civil debates regarding the case, and became more interested in our community affairs and issues of the school system.
One of the other school system agendas the students in my school were directly affected by was the implementation of the RIEPS portfolio system of assessment. Though from freshman year we were told to upload our assignments and the corresponding reflections, it was unclear from the start how many were required. Since the seniors before us had only needed three assignments for the final presentation, most in my grade only did the bare minimum, a tendency of high schoolers. When the end of the year neared, we were finally told our assignment requirement for graduation, twenty. T5he senior class erupted in a frenzy of stress and anger. Many were unprepared for the five artifact/two essay presentation. Fortunately, I had completed over one hundred portfolio assignments since my freshman year and was thoroughly prepared to present them to my panel of judges. While the rest were worrying about the status of their graduation, the greatest of my worries about portfolio was what shoes I would wear to the final presentation. This taught me that going above and beyond and being prepared is worth every extra second of effort in the long run.
Looking back upon the culmination of my high school experiences, they prove to be diverse, varying from an after school activity to a city-wide scandal. Though I had exceptional teachers, including ones I would foster long-lasting relationships with during my entirety at Cranston West, and classmates in the honors courses, who valued intelligence and fostered a sense of community, my education and memorable learning experiences came more from outside the classroom. My life as a student of Cranston High School West was completely unique, unable to be experienced by any student across the country except for myself. Though shaped by events that were stressful, self-affirming, dramatic, and euphoric, I would never think of trading my high school education for another, since, because of my time at Cranston West, I became the determined, welcoming, over-achieving, fun-loving student and woman that I am today.